LEADERS OF THE COLD WAR WORLD
LEADER:
Harry Truman
COUNTRY:
ACTIONS:

United States




Fidel Castro
Cuba
Chiang Kai-Shek
China
Mao Zedong
China



Formation of NATO
Organized Communist rebellion in Cuba
Gained power and created a Communist government
Sought support from Soviet Union

Allowed Soviet missiles to be placed in Cuba




United with communists to resist Japanese invasion
Wanted to exterminate the Communists from China
Leader of the nationalists in China
Forced to flee to Taiwan in 1949



Communist leader of China
Gains support of Chinese peasants and wins Chinese Civil
War
As of 1949, China becomes a Communist nation

Mao leads until his death in 1976

John F. Kennedy
United States
Began the nuclear age by dropping the atomic bomb in
Japan
Created the policy of containment
Created the Truman doctrine (economic aid to keep Greece
and Turkey democratic)
Berlin Airlift


Suggested the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961 to eliminate
Cuban Communists (it fails)
US President during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962
Determined not to back down, negotiates with Soviet
leadership to move missiles

Indira Gandhi
India
Margaret Thatcher
Britain



Soviet Union


Assertion of United Kingdom’s military power




Deng Xiaoping
China
Ho chi Minh
Vietnam
Responsible for the development of the Indian nuclear
program
British Prime Minister (1970s-1980s)
Free trade and less government regulation of business (free
market)
Close relationship between US and Britain for foreign policy

Mikhail Gorbachev
Encourages close relationship between India and the Soviet
Union during the Cold War
Policy of glasnost (openness) –ended censorship and
encouraged open discussion of Soviet problems
Policy of perestroika (restricting of the economy) – limited
free enterprise, some free market reforms
Development of relationship with the US in a peaceful
manner
Fall of the Berlin Wall


Last president of the Soviet Union
Follows after Mao’s death
Reformed Communist China’s economy to a market
economy leading to rapid economic growth

Continued communist control over the government




Leader of Vietnam
Successfully leads independence movement against France
in 1954
Ho and the Communists gains control over North Vietnam
Leads the campaign to re-unify Vietnam under Communist
rule